Background:

The City of Fayetteville is invested in improving how residents, employees, and visitors travel around Fayetteville - whether you drive and park, bicycle, walk, or use public transit.

In 2016, the City partnered with a consulting team, Nelson\Nygaard, to prepare a comprehensive Mobility Plan. You can learn more about the plan here, explore the Existing Conditions Factbook, or view interactive maps from stakeholder workshops.
As parking is a key element of a multimodal transportation system, Nelson/Nygaard has completed a dedicated Parking study and offered subsequent parking management strategies and recommendations. Fayetteville's long term success will be supported by an effective parking management plan that helps to strategically maximize existing parking assets while preparing for future growth.

Key Parking Recommendations:

Streamline signage for user clarity:

Implement consistent signage and wayfinding for parking

Pursue City-sponsored and standardized signage at privately-owned and publicly-accessible lots

Improve multimodal
infrastructure.

The compact nature of
the Downtown and Entertainment Districts can further be enhanced by multimodal
improvements that will make the core areas of the districts more walkable,
allowing parking demand to spread more easily to underutilized areas, while
encouraging more pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users throughout
downtown.

Treat parking as a customer service.
The goal of a well-managed parking system should be to serve its customers, not to make money or inconvenience its users. To clarify this sentiment, the City can make some key changes that will improve overall perception:

Implement responsive
pricing.
Responsive Pricing
uses the cost of parking to achieve ideal parking availability by setting the
cost of parking to allow users to pay more for the most desirable spaces and
less for spaces that are less convenient. Industry standards for “optimal”
availability levels are no less than 15% per block face for on-street spaces
and 10% per lot or facility off-street. At these targets, parking is well used
but availability remains, so customers can find parking anywhere they go,
including the most convenient and desirable spaces. As a result, prime spaces
are typically more expensive, and remote spaces are cheaper or even free.

Create a Residential Parking Benefit District that reinvests parking revenues accrued in residential areas directly into those areas.

What's Happening Now?

Parking enforcement officers are being actively trained to adopt a customer service mentality and act as Parking Ambassadors

New streamlined signage is being installed directing parkers to City-managed parking facilities.

Downtown sidewalk connectivity is being improved to increase pedestrian connectivity to free and reduced-price parking

Walton Art Center ticket purchases are now able to be bundled with parking.

New permitting, enforcement, and event module technology is being implemented to streamline and provide greater flexibility in the City's permit options and to allow credit card processing for event parking.

New on-street parking has been added on West Avenue and St. Charles Avenue

Parking Study Documents & Presentations:

The City, our consulting team, and a host of community stakeholders have been working since Spring 2016 to build this master plan. Read through the documents below to learn about the past, present, and future of parking in Fayetteville: